• Question: Is there life on other planets? If so, is it in any way similar to human life

    Asked by anon-375537 to Michael C on 23 Nov 2023.
    • Photo: Michael C Macey

      Michael C Macey answered on 23 Nov 2023:


      There is currently no known life on other planets. We know that some other planets and moons either had water (Mars millions of years ago) or have water (the icy moons Enceladus and Europa), and many possess the elements that life needs (C, H, N, O, P, S), so it is possible for life to potentially arisen elsewhere and that’s what some of the rovers and missions to other celestial bodies are investigating.

      In terms of human-like, the big steps would be 1) evolution of multicelled life and 2) evolution of intelligence. Multicelled life evolved separately a few times on Earth, but only after the oxygen levels increased a high amount (it’s linked to energy needs and aerobic respiration being more efficient) and was not definite. Intelligence is the same, as so far we only truly observe what we would consider intelligence in certain animals. So this is definitely less likely but not impossible!

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